Jeff called me on Thursday afternoon and said these words, "I think you are just going to need to make some chalices." Ever since summer, I've gotten requests for chalices, and another person had been in the studio earlier that day looking for chalices. I've avoided making them so far. They scare me. I'm intimidated by this particular piece of pottery. They are so fragile. I make them in 2 pieces, the stem and the cup and join them together, but it's hard (for me) get a good, strong joint and sometimes they break before they are finished.
I sucked it up and just tried.
Looks Ok, doesn't it? There are 2. If these survive, then I'll make a few more and see what happens. I need to work on getting the outside curve of the bottom of the cup part to better match the inside curve of the top of the stem. Those are the surfaces that make the joint.
Note the level. I was as careful as I could be to get the pieces together so that the cup sits level on the stem - or the stem sits level on the cup. Whatever.
There were two scary things this week. The second one was the result of a phone call too. I taught my first pottery lesson on Friday afternoon. I was nervous. Can I explain to someone else the concept of centering and so many other things that I now do mostly by feel? Will the student have any success? What should I charge? What if it takes too much time away from my production? Will bringing another person in change our studio family?
I get asked a lot about teaching lessons, and my general response is usually about how I'd like to start teaching some lessons but don't have the time right now, etc. Very true. For some reason, I responded to this phone call differently. I really don't know why, and I worried about it all week. But it was ok. The lesson went ok. My new student was able to get a couple of small cylindrical shapes done. I found myself reaching in and making slight corrections when things were about to go all wonky. (I didn't know that would happen.) She only has time for a couple of hours per week. I think it will be ok. We will take it one week at a time and just see how it goes.
I even had time to make some other things! Here are some bowls. I'm still experimenting with facets and different ways to add texture to the outside of things. These bowls are all about 2 pounds.
Last week at Carolina Clay Connection, I bought a new rib. I'll keep playing with it. I was checking out what happened when I used it over and over on a single piece. I think I might like it better if I use it once for some interest on an otherwise smooth piece, but it's good to experiment, right?
Playing with the new rib made me remember this rib that was Allen's. (Yes, it still feels like Allen's, but he doesn't mind if I use it.) Kind of an interesting vase, yes?
The rest of the weekend involved some last minute clean up before the NC Main Street Conference next week. I do not enjoy dusting and vacuuming, but I did them. I have two things to say about that: Number one, it is no fun at all to dust shelves in my gallery. So many things to move to dust under. Number two, you do not want to look at the water in a Rainbow vacuum cleaner after you've vacuumed clay dust out of rugs and off baseboards and many cobwebs out of corners.
I'm all ready for visitors next week. I sure hope that we have some. Conveniently the conference corresponds with my Spring Break at work, so I can take some extra time off to be open during the week and it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
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